Micronucleus is a bootloader designed for AVR ATtiny microcontrollers with a minimal usb interface, cross platform libusb-based program upload tool, and a strong emphasis on bootloader compactness. It has a built in V-USB so that you can send compiled firmware over a virtual USB connection.

The process will use an Arduino as a programmer by loading an Arduino ISP to install the micronucleus bootloader on the ATtiny84. The next step is allowing USB programming on ATtiny84 by manually change fuses, then creating a board definition for ATtiny84 and installing any necessary USB drivers.

The hardware components should be connected as shown in the above circuit. At first you have to remove the capacitor and connect a FTDI breakout to the Arduino Pro Mini and upload the Arduino ISP firmware.

Before installing Micronucleus, a 10μF capacitor is added between the RESET and GND pins of the Arduino. It will prevent the Arduino from entering bootloader mode so that it will pass the compiled firmware to the connected ATtiny rather than trying to program itself.

AVRDUDE is used then to change the ATtiny fuses and set them as the following:

No clock divider

Brown-out detection at 2.7V (not necessary, but useful if running off battery)

deba168‘s new instructable is a weather widget: “an application that can be downloaded on your PC, laptop or a mobile device and perform the job of providing easy access to weather information”

It’s an ESP8266 based weather display unit which retrieves localized weather information from http://www.wunderground.com by WLAN and displays it on a 128×64 OLED display. It displays the current time with date, some weather information like temperature, pressure, humidity and rainfall, and finally the forecasting for the next 3 days.

The project’s maker advises you to follow his steps in the code inside this zip file to avoid any problems in compiling.

For obtaining data from the Weather Underground , you need to get an API key through signing up in the website and purchasing one. Once you clarify that you won’t use it for commercial use, you won’t be asked for any pay methods.

To make sure that the code will work correctly, you have to change the following things.

Enter the Wunderground API Key

Enter your Wifi credentials

Adjust the location according to Wunderground API

Adjust UTC offset

The final step will be programming the ESP8266 module using FTDI programmer.

Check this video for more information and to see the project in action:

CleO is a simple to program, intelligent TFT display solution that allows the construction of human machine interfaces (HMIs) with – says maker FTDI chip – much higher performance than conventional Arduino display shields are able to deliver. by Graham Prophet [via]

FTDI first introduced its Arduino-compatible concept – aiming to reach a wider audience – by means of a crowdfunding exercise. The company now has full availability of the CleO product (and accompanying accessories) through its distribution partners, as well as directly via the company’s website. FTDI Chip will also give engineers complete access to a comprehensive development resource, which has step-by-step tutorials and projects, plus a series of software tools. In addition, a new forum has been set up ( www.CleOstuff.com) on which design tips, application ideas and other information can be shared.

The FTDI connector can be found on just about any ESP8266 design. If you are building a gadget to be deployed somewhere and not a full blown development board, the FTDI connector is somewhat overkill. And it is quite large. A few pins could be shaved off but we still have a through hole connector invading the other side of the PCB. I ended up designing my own connector and it has been used sucessfully in all of my recent projects.

Testing of sensors with RS485 using PC without proper interface is not possible. Since RS232 interfaces are very rare, the interface should be hooked to USB. The interface between USB and RS485 can be soldered with one of the many FTDI interfaces with added RS485 driver, or bought as assembled module. There is always the third option. I made it from scratch.

Sergey @ malinov.com has build another FTDI FT231X based USB to Serial adapter and provides the design files to the public domain.

This adapter allows connecting micro-controller boards that have 5V or 3.3V serial interfaces to a PC USB port. The converter is compatible with FTDI USB TTL Serial cables and SparkFun FTDI Basic breakout board. Compared to SparkFun board, uses much more reliable and common nowadays Micro USB connector. It is also cheaper to make (about $7 per board), and so it makes a nice project for practicing your SMD soldering skills :-).

A reference design for an Arduino UNO compatible board based on the FTDI FT231X USB UART, delivers 5V at a full 1A without overheating.

The UNO R3 is the staple of most Arduino based projects but it’s been around for a number of years and many of the features have been improved for example by Adafruit and Sparkfun who make excellent enhanced UNO compatibles. However, our additional requirements for a full 1A current without excess heat dissipation and FCC/CE conformity led us to consider a new 3rd party UNO compatible reference design that met these requirements hence the inspiration behind NerO

FTDI.FT-X series USB to serial bridges can be still reasonable option even for today.

Microcontrollers with USB interface are common nowadays. Manufacturers provide source codes for USB device classes like CDC, HID, Mass storage and DFU. . Even in this case, programming USB communications may not be a trivial task. If it is only required to replace RS232 serial interface to USB, is worth considering using of FTDI TF-X series USB to serial bridge.Advantages:

Lower requirements for microcontroller resources. Communication through UART, I2C or SPI is less resource demanding than implementation of USB CDC device class

Drivers for Windows, Mac OS-X, Linux and Android for free.

Microcontroller pins are connected to USB connector through USB/serial bridge. ESD or overvoltage spikes on USB bus can damage bridge instead of microcontroller. Replacement of small bridge chip is simpler than replacement of microcontroller.

If you are looking for a touchscreen LCD display for your next project you should take a look at Riverdi LCD solutions. Their aim is to produce innovative, high quality LCD solutions at affordable prices. They were kind enough to send us a sample of a FTDI FT801 controller LCD display along with their Arduino TFT shield to test out. This LCD display has a build in video engine that accelerates performance over standard TFT displays when used with low power MCUs.

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